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The 25 highest-paid players in Major League Baseball

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Clayton Kershaw

Salaries continue to soar in Major League Baseball as 25 players will make at least $20 million this season, up from 21 players in 2014.

This year's group of highest-paid players includes nine starting pitchers, seven first basemen, two shortstops, two right fielders, and a second baseman, third baseman, left fielder, center fielder, and designated hitter.

The New York Yankees lead the way with five players on the list, followed by the Los Angeles Dodgers (4) and the Philadelphia Phillies (3).

Salaries and contract information via spotrac.com and BaseballProspectus.com.

1. Clayton Kershaw — $30 million

Team: Los Angeles Dodgers

Position: Starting pitcher

2014 WAR: 7.6 wins

Contract: 7 years, $215 million (through 2020)

One thing to know: Kershaw's contract is the richest deal for a pitcher in baseball history and his average annual salary of $30.7 million is the largest for any player. This year he will make about $909,000 for each start.



2. Justin Verlander — $28 million

Team: Detroit Tigers

Position: Starting pitcher

2014 WAR: 2.8 wins

Contract: 7 years, $180 million (through 2019)

One thing to know: Verlander is in just the third year of his contract but has yet to pitch in 2015 as he has been sidelined with a strained triceps muscle and is not expected back before June.



3. (tie) Ryan Howard — $25 million

Team: Philadelphia Phillies

Position: First baseman

2014 WAR: -0.3 wins

Contract: 5 years, $125 million (through 2016)

One thing to know: Howard's contract has become a nightmare for the Phillies as they still owe him nearly $60 million and he is a shell of his former self.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Inside the 'Be Marlboro' parties Philip Morris throws for teenagers — but doesn't want you to know about

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thai girls be marlboro

Smoking is deadly, but Philip Morris International and Marlboro still want to push its tobacco products onto trendy and attractive teenagers around the world.

The company does so by throwing "Be Marlboro" parties in over 60 countries to promote the brand using sex, fun, and risk-taking, a spokesperson for the non-profit Tobacco-Free Kids tells us.

The parties are not held in the United States.

You can sign a petition to stop Marlboro, and these parties, here.

Smoking is bad for you. This is not news. But tobacco companies like Philip Morris International and its brands like Marlboro still have to find ways to sell to younger markets, especially outside the US where advertising and smoking laws are less stringent.



The answer? "Be Marlboro" parties held in over 60 countries, and marketed specifically to teenagers.



"Be Marlboro" parties are elaborate events aimed at enticing youth to smoke Marlboro cigarettes.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Inside the beautiful apartment of an executive at one of New York City's hottest startups

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rebekah rombom apartment

Rebekah Rombom, VP of business development at coding education startup The Flatiron School, never saw the need to fully decorate her tiny apartment on New York City's Upper West Side.

"I thought it was out of reach and not really worth it in a rental in New York City," she told Business Insider. "But I was running into the problem of not having a well-defined work space in my home." 

The Flatiron School is a highly selective, full-time program that teaches people how to code and eventually get jobs as engineers.

Rombom met Will Nathan, cofounder of interior design startup Homepolish, when he turned to the Flatiron School to recruit developers. She decided to purchase 10 hours of design time with Homepolish designer Michele Bitter

The result is a colorful, efficiently organized apartment that has made it easier for Rombom to work on her latest Flatiron School projects from home.

One of the main goals Rombom and Bitter had was to define the tiny studio apartment into separate sleeping, working, and living spaces.



Installing a tall bookshelf was one way to accomplish this without blocking too much sunlight.



Growing a startup means working crazy hours, so having an efficient desk space was extremely important. "When all is said and done, having a place that’s cohesive and feels like it’s your own really makes a difference in your productivity," Rombom said.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

National Geographic just reached one billion likes on Instagram — here are its most spectacular photos

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natgeo instagram

As print magazines transition to digital, one legacy publication has had no problem amassing a large social following from millennials: National Geographic.

With 17 million followers, the magazine's Instagram account is one of the most beloved on the platform — in fact, @natgeo is the top non-celebrity account. 

The account is celebrating a recent milestone, having just surpassed 1 billion likes after posting almost 7,000 photos. They've also launched two new accounts: @natgeoyourshot, where the curate the best reader-submitted photos, and @natgeoadventure, where they spotlight photographers and adventurers.

The @natgeo account is also incredibly diverse and young — 70 percent of followers come from outside the United States and 75 percent are millennials, according to National Geographic.

 

Steve Winter shot this photo of a tiger, the planet's largest big cat.

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This photo of a gray seal in the Gulf of Maine has garnered 542,000 likes so far.

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This leatherback sea turtle just hatched before the photo was taken in Trinidad.

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See the rest of the story at Business Insider

These powerful photos depict the reality of a generation of 'lost boys'

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LC 14

After three years in New York City's Pratt Institute, photographer Liz Calvi realized she couldn't afford her final semesters.

Calvi was lucky enough that her parents let her move back in with them at home in Hartford, Connecticut, and attend a local art school to finish her education without having to pay the price of room and board. She soon realized she wasn't the only one back in town.

"I noticed quite a few kids had come back home," she remembers. "This group of boys stuck around the longest, which is how I got the idea for lost boys instead of both genders." 

In her photo series "Lost Boys," the name of which was inspired by the use of "Peter Pan generation" to describe a generation that some believe refuses or postpones adulthood, Calvi mixes portraits of Hartford's 18- to 26-year-old "lost boys" with scenes from her hometown to illustrate the effects of a struggling economy on her peers. 

Here, she has allowed us to republish an excerpt of her project. To see the complete series, visit her website. 

In 2013, about a year after graduating, Calvi started her project. She was inspired in part by her younger brother Nick, pictured here as a junior in high school. "Being around him and watching him grow up, especially over the past two years, influenced me to start looking at other boys as well," Calvi says.



Calvi started with her "good group of guy friends" but eventually branched out to look for more subjects in town. Nolan, pictured here, is currently studying graphics in college, and he lives with his parents for the summer.



The project's subjects are all at home for different reasons. Some have graduated college, hold temporary jobs, are paying student loans, thinking about grad school, or are in school and saving on room and board. Kevin was homeschooled by his grandparents and is studying to be a firefighter instead of attending college.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

23 of the most powerful women engineers in the world

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Tracy Chou

The percentage of of women holding technical jobs in corporate America is abysmally small — about 15% — and has been for years.

That means you need a microscope to find women in high-powered tech positions amidst a sea of men.

But among those women who do enter the field, and then stay the course, many are killing it in their professions. They're inventing or working with amazing tech or are leaders at their companies.

So every year we get out our microscope and find a whole bunch of women engineers with fabulous, powerful jobs. 

No. 23: Ubisoft's Lisette Titre

Lisette Titre, Art Manager at Ubisoft

Titre has been a video game developer for over thirteen years. A couple of months ago she landed at Ubisoft, makers of the smash hit Assassin's Creed series, as a manager in its art/computer animation department.

Not only does she have a geek's dream job, but Titre has also been a tireless advocate encouraging more young women, especially underprivileged youth, to consider the gaming industry as a career.



No. 22: SpaceX's Amanda Stiles

Amanda Stiles, Mission Operations Engineer at Space Exploration Technologies

Stiles is a training and simulation engineer for SpaceX's various commercial operations.

She came to SpaceX after running technical operations for the X PRIZE Foundation and was particularly involved in the Google Lunar X PRIZE, where Google is offering $30 million in prizes to people who build robots to send to the moon.

She also did a stint at the NASA Ames Research Center, testing software for a lunar spacecraft.



No. 21: Intersect ENT's Lisa Earnhardt

Lisa Earnhardt, president, CEO at Intersect ENT

Intersect ENT makes a biotech device for millions of people suffering from from chronic ear and sinus infections. The tiny device is implanted into the body and delivers small, constant doses of medication, a less invasive alternative than surgery.

Earnhardt joined the company in 2008 and led it through an IPO last summer.

Prior to that she was president of Boston Scientific’s Cardiac Surgery division with over 450 employees.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

5 wacky and fun 5K races for people who hate to run

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mudrun

It's time to run, jump, dance, and get dirty.

In case you didn't know, 5K races aren't always about running.

With different themes and obstacles, there's a whole subset of races that attract people of all ages, professions, and athletic abilities. 

A themed 5K fosters teamwork and a sense of community — particularly these five, which are springing up in cities near you throughout the rest of the year. 

Blacklight Run

Designated color blasters set up throughout the course spray UV neon glow powder that illuminates under the high-beam blacklights. Rest assured, the powder is non-toxic and 100% natural. Be sure to wear a white top to get the full effect.

The fun continues post-race at the Blacklight Run After Party, where you'll find more glow powder, LED gifts, and lots of dancing. It's a night to remember. 

Click here for race details and locations >



Electric Run

If you want to do a night race without being covered in neon glow powder, the Electric Run is for you. Depending on the race, you'll run through 4-6 themed Course Lands, which could include any of the following: Rainforest, Candy Lane, Under the Sea, Rainbow Road, Powerhouse Finish Line, 2015 Mystery Land.

Just like the Blacklight Run, the Electric Run throws a finish line celebration complete with bright lights, music, and dancing in the moonlight. 

Click here for race details and locations>



Dirty Girl Mud Run

Sorry, guys: No boys are allowed at this race, the world's largest women's only mud run, which is all about girl power and getting down and dirty. With a course that's full of muddy obstacles, you'll walk, run, jump, climb, and be empowered by the women around you.

Bright Pink, the national non-profit organization for the prevention and early detection of breast and ovarian cancer, partners with the race.  

Click here for race details and locations >



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

PHOTOS: Take a look at one of Twitter's newest offices (TWTR)

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twitter canada o canada

To celebrate a new office move and mark its second anniversary doing business in the country, Twitter held a party at its Canadian HQ in Toronto earlier this month.

Its grand opening was a "community affair,"Twitter says in a blog post.

Twitter hosted local advertising partners and Tweeters, putting on local food and entertainment.

Bieber was there, of course (in cardboard cut-out form.)



Brendan Canning from Canadian indie band Broken Social Scene supplied the tunes (not a cardboard cut-out.)



Twitter Canada named its party #NestWarming.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Happy Armed Forces Day! Here's 34 stunning images taken by military photographers

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military photo

In honor of Armed Forces Day we are republishing the best images taken by military photograhers in 2014.

 

"Recon Patrols" (First Place: Combat Documentation, Operational)

Soldiers assigned to Palehorse Troop, 4th Squadron, 2nd Calvary Regiment move over rough terrain during Operation Alamo Scout 13, Kandahar Province, Afghanistan, on Feb. 10, 2014. The operation was a joint effort between Palehorse troops and the Afghan National Army's 205th Corps Mobile Strike Force to conduct reconnaissance patrols in villages around Kandahar Airfield.



"Wounded Warrior" (Second Place: Combat Documentation, Operational)

Casualties airlifted by an Afghan Air Force C-130 Hercules from a Taliban attack on Camp Bastion, are offloaded on Dec. 1, 2014 at Kabul International Airport. The Afghan military successfully repelled the attack on the camp after receiving control of the base from coalition forces a month earlier.



"Afghan Gunner" (Third Place: Combat Documentation, Operational)

An Afghan Air Force (AAF) Mi-17 aerial gunner fires an M-240 machine gun while flying over a weapons range March 13, 2014, near Kabul, Afghanistan. US Air Force Airmen from the 438th Air Expeditionary Wing/NATO Air Training Command-Afghanistan flew a night-vision goggle training mission with an AAF aircrew to further increase the operational capability of the AAF.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

THE GLOBAL 20: Twenty big stories defining the world

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california drought oasis

We live in a complex, ever-changing world, with several opportunities and dangers ahead of us.

We've taken a closer look at 20 of the most important economic, political, environmental, and social themes that define the state of our world and its future.

China's rise and its challenges, the emergence of robotics as a major economic force, Greece's fiscal woes, and the threat posed by a warming climate are among the most important things happening in the world today.

Source



Source

Image: Reuters



Source (Pakistan agreement)

Source (Russia agreement)



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8 charts reveal everything you need to know about the monster rocket NASA is building to shuttle astronauts to Mars

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SLS

Right now, NASA is constructing a monster rocket, called the Space Launch System, that will be the most powerful rocket ever built.

This rocket is designed for NASA's future deep-space missions to an asteroid, the Moon, Mars, and beyond.

Taller than the Statue of Liberty and capable of carrying more than twice the payload weight of any of NASA'S former space shuttles, the Space Launch System will transport four astronauts at a time on board the agency's Orion spacecraft farther into space than any human has ever ventured before. The first unmanned test flight of this rocket is scheduled for September 2018.

NASA's Marhsall Space Flight Center has created a series of charts and infographics that show just how revolutionary this rocket will be for the future of spaceflight.

NASA will have to step it up to get a human into deep space — something they haven't done for more than 40 years. Here's where they're starting from:



Check out past achievements for how far humans have ventured into space and where the SLS will take us next:



And here's how the SLS compares to its predecessors:



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

13 things Californians are doing that waste more water than eating almonds

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RTR461MOCalifornia is in its fourth year in the worst drought the state has seen in 1,200 years. 

Yet many Californians continue to use virtually the same amounts of water they were using before the drought began.

Some have cited almonds as the culprit, since the tasty snack use a whole gallon of water per nut.

Compared with noshing on a few almonds, though, many other activities are far worse in terms of the amount of water they require, from watering huge lawns to keeping sprawling waterparks open all season.

Keeping their swimming pools full — especially in the middle of the desert. The average Palm Springs resident uses a whopping 201 gallons of water, more than twice the state average.



Playing golf. A single golf course requires roughly 400,000 gallons of water per day, reports the hospitality association Hotel & Leisure Advisors.



Filling decorative ponds. New state regulations proposed last week ask communities like Palm Springs — where residents use more than 165 gallons of water per person per day — to cut back their usage by 35%.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Michael Jordan cuts the price of his massive Chicago estate to $14.8 million

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michael jordan chicago house

Michael Jordan has lowered the price of his Highland Park, Illinois estate to $14.885 million, according to Zillow.

The house was put back on the market at $16 million in January 2014 after failing to sell at auction. Back in 2012, he had it priced at $29 million

The 56,000-square foot compound has nine bedrooms and 15 bathrooms. There's also a tennis court, basketball court, cigar room, gym, and circular infinity pool with a grass island. It's being co-listed by agents from The Agency and Baird & Warner, Zillow reports.

The gate is fitting (the numbers in the new price of $14.855 million also add up to 23).



At 56,000 square feet, it's massive.



The infinity pool has a bridge to get to the lawn in the middle.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

21 helpful gifts for new grads under $50

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invisible bookshelf

With graduation season rolling around, chances are high that someone you know is about to enter the real world. 

Sure, you can send a check, but why not pick out a gift that will be both practical and meaningful?

Here are 21 options that will honor this major milestone and help them get started in their new adult lives, without breaking your budget.

SEE ALSO: 5 Of The Most Lucrative College Majors For Any Undergrad

Help them stay informed no matter where they go.

Today's graduates prefer to get their news online, so a digital subscription to the New York Times or Wall Street Journal is the perfect way to help them stay current with world events. They'll have full access to everything online, and easy access to the day's headlines through apps on their smartphones.

Price: New York Times, 99¢ for the first four weeks, and $3.75 a week after that; Wall Street Journal. $12 for the first 12 weeks, $28.99 a month ($7.20 a week) after.



Make home-cooked dinners a snap.

After relying on dining halls and pizza delivery for four years, it's understandable that most recent graduates don't know how to prepare meals from scratch. A subscription meal service that delivers perfectly proportioned ingredients along with easy-to-follow instructions is a great way to ease them into cooking at home.

Business Insider's Megan Willett tested out several of the most popular services and found that Blue Apron was not only the most affordable, but also helped her to improve her culinary skills.

Price:$9.99 per person per meal.



Keep their batteries charged on the go.

Between finding a job and an apartment, new college grads are in for some long days. This tiny portable charger works as an external battery for iPhones, iPads, and Samsung Galaxy phones, so that they can keep on hunting.

Price:$12.99



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

13 ways graphene is going to vastly improve a bunch of things you use all the time

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graphene wafer

We are on the brink of a revolution that will completely change the way we use every-day products like cars, clothes, light bulbs, and even water.

Leading the way is a fascinating material called graphene.

Graphene is a thin sheet of carbon atoms — the same element in diamonds and coal — and was the first two-dimensional substance ever created, meaning it's one-atom thick, or about one million times thinner than a human hair.

Despite its miniscule size, graphene has a grand portfolio of wondrous properties. For instance, it's 1,000 times stronger than steel, yet 1,000 times lighter than paper. And it's significantly more electrically conductive than silicon, the substance we use in computer circuits.

Since graphene was first discovered in 2004, hundreds of researchers around the world have begun studying its qualities, which have the potential to revolutionize the world.

Faster, cheaper computers

When graphene's electrical conductivity was first discovered, there were hopeful whispers that graphene could replace silicon chips in today's computers — a change that could usher in a new era of cheaper, faster, super-efficient electronics.

But more than 10 years later, we're still using silicon-based chips because scientists have yet to find a way to control the electrical current across a graphene chip — a crucial feature in running computers' integrated circuits.

In January of last year, researchers at IBM announced a major breakthrough in this field: They designed and built an integrated circuit made of graphene (pictured above). For the first time, the machine performed comparable to silicon technology, IBM reported in a press release. Shortly after this first announcement, IBM announced that they were pledging another $3 billion to continue researching ways to make faster, cheaper computer chips with graphene and other materials.



Longer-lasting light bulbs

In March of this year, scientists at the University of Manchester and a company called Graphene Lighting announced that they had designed a graphene light bulb. The scientists took a regular light-emitting diode, or LED, and painted a layer of graphene over it.

Because graphene is great at conducting electricity, the scientists report that the bulb could be 10% more efficient and last longer than LEDs currently on the market. These graphene bulbs should be available for purchase in the next few months.



Better oil spill mops

This April, researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory reported that they had developed a revolutionary way to manufacture graphene through 3D printing. What you see on your right is a 3D-printed graphene aero-gel sitting atop a dime for scale.

Aero-gels are made of mostly air, which makes them highly absorbent. Therefore they could be used as a quick new way of cleaning up oil spills. In 2013, Chinese material scientists said that they had produced a graphene aero-gel that could absorb up to 900 times its own weight in oil. Not only that, the same aero-gel could be used, squeezed dry, and reused numerous times.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

The incredible story of Japan's famous Bullet Train

A candid look inside the police force in one of America's most dangerous cities

13 tips to eliminate debt from regular people who paid off thousands

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anna newell jones 01

Most of us have some experience with debt, whether that's a mortgage, student loans, or a credit card balance.

In fact, a survey from MagnifyMoney found that over 42% of Americans hold an average of nearly $11,000 in credit card debt, specifically.

But not everyone wilts in the face of owing thousands, and we can name names.

Here, we've highlighted insight from normal people who paid their way out of the red.

Austin Netzley started by getting clear on what he owed.

How much debt he paid: $81,000

How long it took him: Less than 3 years

One trick he used: Getting a clear picture of his debts by gathering all of his info in one place.

Netzley writes:

You can't fix what you don't know, so I had to get very clear on all of my loan details, including all of the debt balances, lender information, interest rates, and the required monthly payment amounts and start dates. 

The best ways to find all of this information are via your loan statements and a credit report. When I ran my first credit report, I found two additional accounts that I thought were closed that were not, so it's important to do this on an annual basis.

I put all of my loan information on a spreadsheet that I regularly updated, which allowed me to get a clear picture of what I owed and how to attack it.

Read his full story.



Anna Newell Jones went on a spending fast.

How much debt she paid: $23,600

How long it took her: 15 months

One trick she used: A spending fast.

"A spending fast is where you spend money on the basics needed to live. It's created by structuring a wants and needs list, which is personalized by each specific person's priorities in life,"Anna Newell Jones explains.

Jones laid out her needs — rent, utilities, cellphone without internet, necessary groceries, low-cost gym membership, medical costs, inexpensive photography exhibits for her side business, car payments and gas, a bus pass, and boxed hair dye — and eliminated pretty much everything else.

Read her full story.



Kelsey and Kendan Folmar tracked every dollar they spent.

How much debt they paid: $24,000

How long it took them: Less than 3 years

One trick they used: Trying an online spending app to see where their money went. 

When trying to eliminate her husband's student loan debt, one of the first steps Kelsey Folmar took was signing up for spending tracking tool Mint.com.

"By the end of the night, I had all of my accounts set up,"she says. "I was already starting to see where we were screwing up. I asked Kendan: 'How much money do you think we spent on food last month? $500? $600?' It was $1,200!"

"The other day I was on Mint and said to Kendan, 'You pulled $40 out of the ATM?,' then realized it was a year ago," Folmar says. 'That's the kind of banter we have now. That's the only way we've managed to pay this debt off."

Read their full story.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

The 10 best cities to start your career

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Irving, Texas

If you think the promised land for starting your career is New York City or San Francisco, think again.

Your best prospects for building your new life are actually in Irving, Texas, according to personal finance site WalletHub

To determine the best places for recent college graduates to launch their burgeoning careers, WalletHub analyzed and ranked the 150 most populous US cities based on 19 metrics pertaining to professional opportunities and quality of life.

Metrics included the number of entry-level jobs per 10,000 residents, housing affordability, annual job growth rate, recreation ranking, unemployment rate, and number of leisure establishments in the area.

To read more about the study's methodology, check out the full report here.

No. 10: Tulsa, Oklahoma

Monthly median starting salary: $2,754

Number of entry-level jobs per 10,000 residents: 16

Coming in at No. 10 overall is Tulsa, Oklahoma. It earned a professional opportunities rank of No. 5 and ranked No. 61 for quality of life. WalletHub also ranks the city as the second best for entrepreneurial activity.



No. 9: Sioux Falls, South Dakota

Monthly median starting salary: $2,190

Number of entry-level jobs per 10,000 residents: 9

WalletHub ranks Sioux Falls, South Dakota, the second best city for families and the sixth best for entrepreneurial activity, which makes the city the fourth best in terms of overall quality of life and No. 18 for overall professional opportunities.



No. 8: Fort Worth, Texas

Monthly median starting salary: $3,013

Number of entry-level jobs per 10,000 residents: 29

Affordable housing options is one of the many reasons Fort Worth, Texas, is one of the best cities for overall professional opportunities and No. 41 for quality of life.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

NASA has a giant flying saucer that they're going to send humans to Mars in

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ldsd

The way we think of flying saucers is about to get a pretty serious makeover.

Instead of transporting aliens across the universe (as portrayed in sci-fi films), rocket-powered flying saucers could send the first humans to the surface of Mars.

At least, if everything goes according to NASA's plans.

Right now, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California is testing its low-density supersonic decelerator (LDSD) project, which includes the test model of an actual flying saucer that will carry heavier loads — including astronauts — to Mars in the not-too-distant future.

The technology NASA used to land its Curiosity rover on the red planet in 2012 won't cut it when it comes to heavier payloads like manned missions. So, NASA is pushing the boundaries of spacecraft technology with their LDSD project to design the safest, most cost-effective way of slowing a spacecraft down once it has entered the Red Planet's atmosphere.



The most cost-effective way to slow down larger loads as they approach Mars is to take advantage of the natural drag, or friction, in the atmosphere. The LDSD's large, flat, saucer-like surface will maximize this potential, generating a lot of drag to help slow it down as it falls to Mars.



Still, the craft could benefit from even more drag. That's why scientists created the Supersonic Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerator (SIAD). It slows it down even more by making the object larger.

 



See the rest of the story at Business Insider
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